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Got my car back, all nice and shiny. Well, sort of shiny, lots of pollen in the air.

I'm also playing Pentiment. I played for a little last year, but had to stop. The game became far more interesting once I knew who is who in the village and that I can talk to most people before triggering whatever advances the story at that point. Still in the beginning of Act II. I was disappointed in the first act because I imagined I had more time to investigate and ended up missing a certain action that required a specific time, no longer available. However, I did manage to gather some convincing evidence, despite failing a dialogue check. Anyway, I hope I got the right person.

C:S' challenge was two fold - managing traffic and coping with the bloat from Unity.

Another giveaway on GOG. This time Sigma Theory. I have watched few let's plays, and it looked interesting. So I have decided to give it a chance and purchased both DLCs for 0.69 EUR. https://www.gog.com/en/news/summer_sale_special_another_giveaway_2_classic_releases_and_a_new_awesome_collection

Playing far to much Yakuza for my own good. In the last 6ish months I've finished 0, Kiwami 1, Ishin, and 6, and am working on Kiwami 2 right now.

Going to Spiderman tonight with a friend. Should be good. Roommate should be earning decent money starting next week so hopefully she will be able to start paying rent (Just having her here without rent is great for my mental health). Also another friend is gonna help me figure out how to take better care of my great grandfathers 1900ish foot Artillery sword.

Never mind the new Prince of Persia game, this is where it's at:

What we know: 1) Takes place in the Living Lands. 2) New player character. 3) Only human or elf. 4) We work for Aedyr. 5) No co-op. 6) There are companions, you can have two of them with you at a time, and they are mandatory. 7) Lots of factions from the previous games (flags in trailer). 8 ) We will meet some familiar faces from Deadfire. 9) No classes (at least for the player character). 10) We're not playing a Watcher. 11) The original CGI trailer focused on scope of the narrative. 12) The gameplay trailer focused on player power fantasy. 11) In 2021 there were rumors that the project had been rebooted. Deep Fan Zone: 12) Deadfire ended on an apocalyptic cliffhanger. What we can reasonably suspect: 1) Takes place either in between the Pillars games or after Deadfire. Why*: Elves and other races in Eora don't have magically extended**, super long lives like in other fantasy settings. That and the fact that they picked familiar faces specifically from Deadfire means that in all likelihood this is the timeframe the game takes place in. 2) Co-op was likely scrapped as part of the reboot from a few years ago. Why: Both leaks happened around the same time and it was rumored that Obsidian decided to cut back on the scope and just make a really good Obsidian game and they've never been known for their co-op games (yes, Grounded is really good but it's not their signature genre). Deep Fan Zone: 3) Their original idea was Avowed would be Pillars3-at-home. Why: There was supposed to be a POE3. Deadfire's apocalyptic cliffhanger deliberately left the door open for one more Watcher game, but initially Deadfire was considered a financial failure. Josh Sawyer as since come out and said that Deadfire's done pretty darn good over the long haul. The reboot coincides with around the time that Deadfire had turned the corner and now started to earn Obsidian a real profit. This would imply that originally Avowed was meant to sidestep the Watcher's story, present a new player character in a new series to finish the Watcher's story. 4) Avowed is no longer Pillars 3 by proxy. Why: The original CGI trailer had all this Woedica imagery and the voice over focused on 'we', the nation of Aedyr. This implies the original idea involved wars, gods, the conquest of nations, and the narrative scope was huge. The gameplay trailer focused on player power fantasy (they say 'you' 11 times in 9 sentences). The smaller scope and focus is obvious. Also, the Pillars games never sold themselves on power fantasy. It was a part of the games and the marketing, but they always focused on the lore, the world, the stories, and player choice. 5) There's real hope now of a Pillars of Eternity 3. *'Why' as in, why do we suspect this. I didn't want to have to type it out every time. **Correction: elves can live up-to 300 years old and dwarves and live up-to 190.

Hello! I guess you knew that when you use the Dire Talon (sabre) and enchant it with Wurm Call you will have a 20% chance on crit to summon 3 wurms? Did you also know that if those wurms die they will leave a body hat only disappears after combat ends - unlike the summons that you gain from your abilities (that includes summons from items that give you an active summoning ability like a Whale of a Wand's Fantastic Friends - they will disappear on being killed and leave no body)? I surely didn't. But those wurms' bodies will stay. And wurms are beats... That means that you can consume the body with Flesh Communion. All Corpse Eaters: This can help your Corpse Eater to use their Flesh Communion in every fight - you "only" need to crit often enough and then get a wurm killed. You can do so yourself by attacking it with the weapon itself (there's a chance that you crit and summon another bunch of wurms and so on - there's no hard cap on how many wurms can be on the screen) or by using some friendly-fire spell like Shadowflame or whatever. If you crit a lot (hello Swift Flurry/HBD) you can summon a lot of wurms - and some might end up dead even without your interference because they are just weak. The bodies will be there until combat ends. So nothing speaks against piling up some wurm bodies for later in the fight. Of course this doesn't have to be done by one and the same character. You just need somebody in the party who will crit a lot with Dire Talon in order to prepare a rather monothematic Corpse Eater buffet. I then also tried it with Hel Beckoning (summon Hel Imp on killing spirit) - and this also leaves the body of the imp when he gets killed. But alas: it doesn't work for Flesh Communion. I forgot that Imps are not wilders - they are primordials. And since Flesh Communion only works in kith, wilder and beasts... Off to Essence Interrupter you say? Right! It works, too: If you crit and then kill any enemy and let's say a Xaurip gets summoned (and then killed) - you can consume its body. Same with Ogre Pirates. Unfortunately there's several summons with Essence Interrupter that are neither wilder nor beast (oozes, guls etc.) - so it's not very reliable. Also some of the summons take some time to kill compared to the very weak wurms that Dire Talon gives you. And some summons don't leave a body when killed - like the Boars wouldn't do that for me for example. But still... it can work. I didn't find another suitable item for this interaction - maybe you know one. Anyway - with this you can make the Corpse Eater better in long fights that usually don't have "food" for him. Bringing your own targets for deliverering crits will make it easier (for example Many Lives Skeletons). Don't know yet if it's worth it though - or if it's too fiddly. We'll see...

rfk jr and rogan? is there enough aluminum to craft the hats both these jokers need? rogan ain't educated enough or is too immersed in conspiracy crazy to push back on the obvious untruths kennedy spews. https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2023/06/06/rfk-jr-makes-unfounded-claims-about-mass-shootings-covid-19-here-are-all-the-conspiracies-he-promotes/?sh=41f1b6753acc https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/robert-f-kennedy-jr-conspiracy-theory-twitter-elon-musk-1234747479/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/05/rfk-jr-democratic-primary-biden/ https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/08/robert-kennedy-jr-measles-vaccines-226798/ etc. was only able to take so much bs about kennedy from the rogan lovefest. revisionist history 'bout jfk didn't help neither. after all, eisenhower (republican) were the "dove" who had warned about the military industrial complex and kennedy's literal number one campaign issue in 1960 were national defense (long, but if you don't read, you won't learn nothing): the idea the military industrial complex were out to get kennedy only works 'cause +90% o' americans don't recall or never learned much 'bout kennedy save the post dallas revisionism which became popularized following the assassination. kennedy were the freaking golden goose for the military industrial complex. whatever. and trump's popularity increased with republicans after the indictment. is terrible, and is bad for america, but democrat leadership actual wants trump to be the republican candidate 'cause he is the one guy democrats, and an Increasing number of independents, will crawl across broken glass to vote against. yeah, with trump as the gop candidate, the rhetoric becomes more extreme and chances for violence increase, but biden is not a good candidate and democrats perhaps need an existential crisis alternative to win. just as with the midterms, democrats is willing to risk extremism and violence to actual aid the most fringy gop candidates 'cuase recent history has changed the democrat voting dynamic. in the past, democrats only bothered to come out and vote if they were hopeful or enthusiastic about a candidate. now, democrats will vote if they are afraid... afraid enough. and yeah, there is indeed a chance trump gets a second term in part 'cause biden is so not great for democrats. pretend trump can't win 'cause he lost in 2020 is naïve. so democrats quiet cheering as trump solidifies his frontrunner status with the gop is questionable even if it might be a winning strategy. COVID-19 research updates: does wearing tinfoil hats pose neurodegenerative threats to conspiracists and the general public? HA! Good Fun!

Yeah, uh, I don't think Biden has much to worry about with regards to that crackpot, at least at this particular moment. Even somebody who heavily distrusts polling* should probably feel a little skeptical when it's a 60 point difference. *Which is almost always the result of their inability to parse statistical information and how fuzzy probabilities regarding uncertain outcomes work. But people going "my candidate was given a 20% chance to win and they did just barely win so EVERYTHING IS A LIE AND THE POLLERS ARE STUPID [even though that's literally the exact outcome that the 20% was accounting for]" is always pretty hilarious. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I am just laughing, while looking at the sim racing stats on LFM portal Today I have became the fastest Aston Martin GT4 driver on Brands Hatch Circuit at Low Fuel Motorsport portal It is funny, because I know, that I suck, but the game balance is currently a little bit broken, so the absolute top drivers are driving Alpine and Mercedes GT4 cars And in total, I am 1.5 seconds slower per lap than them But I am enjoying driving in that car, despite being slowpoke I would love to see the top guys driving my car, how fast they would be, compared to me

And getting roads to be parallel...

This game looks strangely familiar... https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/our-games/star-trek-infinite

Looks meh, really.

@Elric Galad thank you for making Single Class Paladin viable as a support healer. I beat the game on POTD-Ironman with god challenges of Skaen, Berath, Galawain and Ondra (no real impact here for Ondra lol) and having a dedicated healer/Battle Captain tank played really well for the party. 1. The change to Healing Chain makes a viable alternate path to Sacred Immolation. The heal is incredible in tough fights like FS and SSS as you can reduce a lot of the AOE chip damage you take. 2. The change to Divine Retribution makes it still good (I still took it) but not a must have thanks to.. 3. 1 Zeal cost to all but Reviving Exhortation. I took almost all the exhortations-Reinforcing Exhortation plus resolve upgrade (double down on deflection) for Eder swashbuckler tank-Hastening Exhortation plus nimble (full party nimble lol) upgrade. Even Liberating Exhirtation I found extremely useful in FS when a party member gets hit with a ton of negative affects. Took Reviving Exhortation no upgrade for emergencies cause of Berath challenge-used it like twice but saved my bacon. You aren’t soloing the game a support Paladin but the mod makes them a great group support class + good tank.

Yes I did. It was very good in FS and SSS the times the group took heavy damage. Plus the change to frost/electricity. I had room for Divine Retribution, Prestige and Light of Pure zeal (you might as well you have the room.) @Elric Galad I wouldn’t call it mandatory but it was nice in long fights. I could do the Skeleton summon with the chanter , they would die and get some resources for more exhortations or heals. I don’t know that I needed it but it was good insurance for fights like the Oracle etc.

Did you find a place for Light of Pure Zeal (the PL 9 nova move)?

Biden and everyone else travels with no security there, after all.

Yeah, I got a couple of hits from around 2007, but, hard to verify it. I think I've heard it mentioned in some Horus Heresy novel aswell, but I don't have a searchable copy, besides the Heresy series spans a few years.

Dammit, don't know why that slipped in, brainfart. I was even reading the text that said Munitorum... Aha! From Dark Heresy 2nd edition.

Tested this now - it only works with crits from the sabre itself.

They were just referred to by their regimental names, like the 602nd Armageddon etc. Edit: But if non-specific, they were "The Guard". Things like abhumans Ogryns, Ratlings, Beastmen (yes, they had beastmen in the early versions, trying to repent and absolve themselves of the crime of being born), commissars etc. were all a thing almost from the beginning. Rules were a bit more loose, much was randomised (including stats and gear), so you could have a Lieutenant with better stats and abilities than his colonel ... or assault Ratlings with jump packs (and leadership skill 5 and will always flee from combat)

aside, since @majestic is such a fan o' covers, we will share a couple favorites... one is even from an animated movie. have mentioned we originally thought led zeppelin were a blues cover band. am so not a nirvana fan, but their version o' in the pines is fantastic. prince being prince. 'nuff said. which brings us to... am disappointed the film (as well as the soundtrack) didn't get more love. HA! Good Fun!

I didn't test that specifically tbh. I only tried to maximize crits with the weapon itself. But iirc Dire Talon was not on the list of weapon which get triggered universally which @Constentin Lévinecomposed. But I can try later. I have a bit of free time today. Edit: since an Essential/Substancial Phantom uses an exact copy of your weapon a way to produce more Wurms might be to use a Wizard/sth. with the Dire Talon and summon said Phantom near a weak enemy. Maybe... don't know if it's worth it and warrants the summoning time. A Monk/Ranger with Swift Flurry and Mohara Tanga in the offhand + Dire Talon in the main hand produces a lot of Wurms in a given time though.

You can ask whatever you want ... what excites you to imagine knowing more about?

Some fights can definitely take quite a while, though not as bad as I feared. I was considering using the half health mod but I decided against it because I wanted to see how a mostly vanilla game felt in the turn-based mode, and I heard it introduces some real balance problems, like self-damage becoming much more severe or all healing becoming much more powerful. If I ever get around to doing another playthrough I might make a 75% health mod and get rid of the Veteran/POTD health modifiers. Making crowd control effects more severe could also help, e.g., bringing Paralyse's hit-to-crit back up to 50% or adding a Deflection penalty to it (which it should really have anyway).

Ha! I was about to write how I don't understand why there isn't any Three Musketeer or Zorro game already. Well, not literally "any", but any other than this:

Do you think you could please continue to release PC games on GOG?

Youthful optimism always had me hit R a few times.

Yeah, Fail tends to imply a sort of graceful termination, like "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that". Abort just immediately drops all those plates you're carrying and damn the consequences.

And you can get them all with a 60% discount for a low, low price of 101.49 euro! It's like Sims!

Playing Obsidian's Pentiment, which has a forum here that nobody writes on. Well, there are aspects of the game that I really enjoy (like the setting and the premise, for instance), but there's not a whole lot you can do, actually: it looks like a short story with a few places where you can have some influence on what happens. None of the mini-games, like fitting pottery shards together, are interesting. I'm in the third act, which looks like it's going to be the last one, and while the game's ok, it's not that memorable. A bit of a pity, really. I would have liked to like this a lot more.

The Announcement is now on every landing page at the top - does this help?

Well yeah, I've played it a number of times with one or two other players and we DID have a blast. Just don't ask me (or them) to recount any story beats or name any characters. We skimmed the dialogue and basically fast tracked to the fights or just murdered everyone we encountered.

Questions and memes are great and all, but have you heard Hocus Pocus by Focus?

I feel personally attacked.

There is a brief interview with Carrie Patel in XBOX Extended Showcase: Nothing really groundbreaking and most of it was mentioned in written reviews but: 1) there will be returning characters from PoEs (Deadfire especially) - I suppose that would suggest the game takes place after PoE2, though I assumed that to be the case, due to Aedyr invasion of Living Lands being teased in PoE2 DLC3. 2) Narrator from the trailer is Kai one of the first companions you meet 3) You are not a Watcher but have a unique soul connection (?) 4) The game will consist of interconnected open zones - game is similar in size to Kotor2 or OuterWorlds. I wonder if we will have some kind of world map and travel from place to place (ala. PoE1) or will those maps attempt to create more of a feeling of an open world.

^if you play as support. If you build for damage they can do that too.

Me and my friends have been having a blast playing Grounded when we have the chance, but we feel like we can't really work together in fights when we can harm each other with the many accessories in the game and some weapons secondary effects. For example, one of my friends have an accessory that has a chance to spawn a poison cloud when landing an attack which will poison everything that is in the range of the cloud. Unfortunately this also applies to us, so when we are teaming up to fight a boss, we usually end up dying from his accessory and then he is soloing the boss. We initially wanted to disable friendly fire since we think this would fix the problem, but since it is a game setting it will change the difficulty we have set to custom, thus disabling our ability to earn achievements. An example of a weapons secondary effect harming team play is the Pinch Wacker, where it has a chance to spawn an electricity effect that stuns enemies when in range, but this stun also applies to my teammates and harms their ability to play the game with me. I personally think to solve this issue would be allowing us to disable friendly fire without changing the difficulty to custom, therefore we will still be able to earn achievements and not impact each other's gameplay (assuming that the "custom" difficulty is what prevents achievements from being earned). Perhaps a second method would be to have the accessory and secondary weapon effects not apply to your teammates, but I think this would be more difficult to do and could harm the games PvP potential. Maybe there's also an opportunity to look into a way to create teams based on colors like "green team", "red team", and "blue team". (Terraria has a feature like this if you're interested in looking into it.) This would allow rival teams between your play group where you cannot harm players on your team, but can still damage the enemy teams players. I believe this idea also has potential to expand the PvP side of Grounded to incorporate some fun community made game modes like "Team Capture the Flag" or something as simple as "Team Deathmatch" in arenas we build. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope to see this game continue to grow.